Saudis set no limits on foreign stock ownership

Riyadh: Saudi Arabia has set no limit on the number of shares which non-resident investors can own in listed firms under groundbreaking new guidelines it issued last week that opened the door to foreign buyers.

The Capital Market Authority (CMA) last week said foreign investors were allowed to sign swap agreements with Saudi intermediaries, allowing a form of indirect ownership of the shares, in one of the boldest moves the kingdom has taken so far to open its stock exchange to foreign ownership.

But the CMA, which took the step to diversify the investor base of the Gulf region's worst-performing benchmark this year, did not publish detailed rules to govern these agreements, leaving many investors guessing how they might be implemented.

The regulator has now sent a memo to Saudi brokerage and asset management firms outlining 11 guidelines for these agreements, senior brokerage and asset management executives said.

CMA's website did not carry these regulations and spokesman Abdul Aziz Al Zoom declined comment.

"With these regulations, CMA has struck a balance ... We are not in China and we are not in India either. We are not too stringent, nor too flexible. We have a balanced set of regulations for these swap agreements," said Fahad Al Mubarak, chairman of Morgan Stanley Saudi Arabia. His firm was the first to sign up a foreign investor under a swap agreement which he said will be for one stock.

The regulations capped at four years the duration of swap agreements but did not set a minimum maturity duration. "These agreements can be renewed once the four years come to maturity. They did not set a minimum because they wanted to offer flexibility," Mubarak said.

CMA did not set limits on the number of shares foreign investors can own through these agreements.

"Executing a single swap is a costly proposition, so foreign investors will not enter an agreement for a small quantity of shares," Mubarak said.